Strychnos spinosa

Strychnos spinosa
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Gentianales
Family:	Loganiaceae
Genus:	Strychnos
Species:	S. spinosa
Binomial name
Strychnos spinosa

Strychnos spinosa is a tree indigenous to tropical and subtropical Africa. It produces juicy, sweet-sour, yellow fruits, containing numerous hard brown seeds. Greenish-white flowers grow in dense heads at the ends of branches (Sep-Feb/Spring - summer). The fruit tend to appear only after good rains. The smooth, hard fruit are large and green, ripen to yellow color. Inside the fruit are tightly packed seeds surrounded by a fleshy, edible covering. Animals such as baboon, monkeys, bushpig, nyala and eland eat the fruit. The leaves are a popular food source for browsers such as duiker, kudu, impala, steenbok, nyala and elephant. It is believed that various insects pollinate the flowers.

Common names : Spiny Monkey-orange/Green Monkey Orange (English) Doringklapper (Afrikaans) Morapa (NS) umKwakwa (Swaziland) Nsala (Tswana) Mutamba (Shona) Maboque (Angola)

Distribution

This tree can be found growing singly in well-drained soils. It is found in bushveld, riverine fringes, sand forest and coastal bush from the Eastern Cape , to Kwazulu-Natal , Mozambique and inland to Swaziland , Zimbabwe , northern Botswana and northern Namibia , north to tropical Africa.

Uses

A traditional food plant in Africa, this little-known fruit has potential to improve nutrition, boost food security, foster rural development and support sustainable landcare.

• The wood can be used for general carpentry. Timber from this tree is also used to produce implement handles, fighting sticks and hut poles. It is also used for carving.
• The species has recently been introduced into Israel as a potential new commercial crop.
• The fruit may be used as a supplementary source of food by rural people during times of shortage.

• 
  Ripe fruit of the Strychnos spinosa tree.
• 
  Rotten fruit of the Strychnos spinosa tree.

External links

• Characterization of monkey orange
• plantzafrica description